Fine Arts, BFA

Our Fine Arts curriculum strikes a balance among technique, concepts, and personal expression. You will begin by acquiring a foundation in skills within a broad range of artistic styles and mediums. Choose from concentrations in 3D Studies, Painting and Drawing, or Printmaking.

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Overview

You will learn formal and innovative approaches to drawing, painting, printmaking, mixed media, and sculpture as you gain confidence in your own creative voice. An appreciation of historical and contemporary concepts are threaded through a sequentially developed curricula. Through personal and group critiques, you will develop an awareness of just what it is and just what it takes to be an artist. This will form the foundation of your creative thinking for the rest of your life.

The department boasts state-of-the-art facilities and resources; the setting is intimate and places you on personal terms with a faculty of practicing professionals. Our proximity to Boston, New York, and Montreal facilitates an exploration and engagement of broader artistic trends. Our passionate commitment is to see you leave with a fluent and creative flexibility, prepared to engage your future as both artist and citizen.

Available Concentrations:
3D Studies (previously called Sculpture and Ceramics)
Painting and Drawing
Printmaking

Student Work and Studios

Recognition and Rankings

NEC Ranked Top College in New Hampshire

New England College in New Hampshire has earned recognition as a leading college in the state, as acknowledged by Intelligent.com, a credible source for evaluating higher education programs.

NEC Ranked Leading College in New Hampshire

New England College in New Hampshire has earned recognition as a leading college in NH, as acknowledged by EduRank, a credible source for evaluating higher education programs.

NEC Ranked Top College in New Hampshire

New England College in New Hampshire has earned recognition as one of the best colleges in New Hampshire, as acknowledged by Academic Influence, a credible source for evaluating higher education programs.

Faculty

Christopher Archer
Assistant Professor, 3D Studies
Phone: 603.428.2614
Email: carcher@nec.edu
Professional website: chrisarcherartist.com

View CV

Awards
In 2019, the Socièté Académique Arts-Sciences-Lettres de France in Paris awarded Chris the Medaille d’Argent (Silver Medal) for his achievement and leadership in his studio practice, teaching, and community-based art advocacy.

Educational Background
MFA in Interdisciplinary Practice, Maine College of Art
BFA in Ceramics with K–12 Art Education Certification, SUNY Alfred, College of Ceramics, School of Art and Design

Research interests
- Creative community building
- Contemporary craft
- Pedogogies of Bauhuas and Black Mountain College
Bio
Chris Archer is an artist, art educator, and art advocate. His studio practice traverses across functional pottery, sculptural forms, arrangements, site-specific installations, and events. Through a diverse range of delivery systems, Chris’ practice considers the significance of material engagement as a means of critical thinking.

Chris’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, earning multiple awards, and is in the collections of the San Angelo Museum of Art (San Angelo, Texas) and Tokyo Geidai (Tokyo, Japan), as well as multiple private collections. His work has been published in a series of Lark Books publications and he has written for Studio Potter Magazine.

Teaching has been an integral part of Chris’s career. In addition to teaching regional and national studio workshops, Chris served on the faculty of New Hampshire Institute of Art from 1998–2014, teaching a range of courses in the BFA, MFA and MAAE, and community education programs. He then served as Associate Dean of Community Education, overseeing a range of continuing studies programming while having created an executive education certificate program in Creative Placemaking and an interdisciplinary youth arts program.

Chris is an active member (and former Trustee) of the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen with whom he collaborates on strategies to highlight the relevance and vital importance of craft as well as redefining that organization’s standards and educational programming. He also is an active member of the Steering Committee for the New Hampshire Creative Communities Network, actively working with a range of state agencies to promote, stimulate, and support the regional creative economy and cultural capital. Chris continues to lecture, serve on panels, and co-facilitate projects around the state and the region focused on community-based and social-based practices as well as the importance and potential in collaborative efforts between creative and other professional sectors.
Glen Scheffer

Associate Professor, Photography
Phone: 603.428.2655
Email: gscheffer@nec.edu
Professional website: glenscheffer.com

Educational Background
MFA in Photography, New Hampshire Institute of Art

Bio
Glen Scheffer uses the language of photography to describe the world around him. Whether using the studio to create photographs linking science and art or photographing indirect social connections made within the landscape, Glen strives to make art that will stir conversation about how we interact with each other and the world. Glen uses large- and medium-format cameras to construct his interpretations and cultivate his vision. Glen’s work is finished through the darkroom as gelati silver prints, digitally as large archival pigment prints, as well as published books. Glen has exhibited his work regularly locally and nationally. Most recently, his work was part of a traveling exhibition of film-based artists. The work traveled to the Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver, Canada; SF Camerawork in San Francisco; and The Reference Gallery in Seoul, South Korea. Glen’s work is also part of Everything Is Narrative, a publication of landscape photographers. The book is an anthology of contemporary photography exploring the open-ended nature of photographic storytelling. Showcasing images from 162 artists, this book was published in the spring of 2021.
James Chase

Associate Professor, Printmaking
Phone: 603.428.2601
Email: jchase@nec.edu
Personal website: neverfading.com

Education Background
MFA in Studio Art Printmaking and Painting, Texas Tech University
BFA in Interdisciplinary—Printmaking/Painting and Photography, New Hampshire Institute of Art

Bio
James Chase is a mixed-media artist currently living in Manchester, New Hampshire, where he previously was an arts commissioner. Chase has had solo exhibitions at the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts in Rochester, New Hampshire, and Launch Art Gallery in Peterborough, New Hampshire, and has co-led pop-up exhibitions during the Chinati Foundation Open House weekend in Marfa, Texas. Chase has also been part of collaborative projects such as Tower of Babble at The Print Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the “BFT and the Wolfbat Railway,” at the Old Iron Works in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Karen Hillson
Assistant Professor, Art
Phone: 603.428.2648
Email: khillson@nec.edu

Expertise and Awards

Expertise:
19th- and 20th-century art

Awards:
- Frank Maria Fund, NEC
- Rockefeller II Fund, NEC
- Faculty Development Fund, NEC
- Samuel H. Kress Foundation Travel Fellowship
Educational Background
PhD, University of California, Santa Barbara
BA, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles

Research Interests
- French Romanticism, particularly the art of Eugène Delacroix
- Women artists
Bio
Dr. Hillson was born in Willimantic, Connecticut, and grew up in Los Angeles. Her dissertation research in Paris on the art of Eugène Delacroix was supported by a Samuel H. Kress Foundation Travel Fellowship. She lived for 10 years in Tucson, Arizona, before moving to New Hampshire in 2007. She has taught at the University of Southern California, the University of Arizona, St. Anselm College, and Rivier University. She was Chair of Art History, the Parliamentarian of the Executive Committee, and Faculty Representative on the Board of Trustees at the New Hampshire Institute of Art before joining the faculty of NEC. She created a diverse Art History curriculum that covers all major geographic regions: Asia, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Americas, and Islamic lands.

When she is not teaching, Dr. Hillson enjoys observing the flora and fauna in her native perennial garden, which has been certified as a Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation. She and her husband, Jim, also tend a prolific vegetable garden.
Patrick McCay

Professor, Fine Arts
Phone: 603.428.2611
Email: pmccay@nec.edu

Educational Background
Post-graduate certification in Education, St. Andrews University
MFA, University of Notre Dame
MFA, Glasgow School of Art
BFA, Glasgow School of Art

Bio
Patrick McCay’s national and international exhibitions record includes The Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts; The Edinburgh International Festival; London’s Royal Academy; The London Institute; Sydney College of Fine Arts, Australia; Leila De Pintura, Rue Miguel, Lisbon, Portugal; and the Irish College for the Humanities.

He is the recipient of numerous juried awards, grants, purchase prizes, and scholarships, including Andrew Carnegie Trust Award; Scottish Arts Council Traveling Scholarship; and the David Carghil Award, Royal Glasgow Institute of the Arts.

Public and private collectors include Royal Bank of Scotland, Baldwin Piano Corporation, HRH Princess Margaret, Zurich RE Insurance Co., Georgia Council for the Arts, Westin Hotels Inc., and the Irish College for the Humanities.

He is an active academic artist and lecturer with 25 + years of experience at the college level, including leadership positions in American International School of London, SCAD, College for Creative Studies, and the New York School of Visual Arts.

Degree Requirements

Art Core

(44+ Credits)

Fine Arts Concentration:

Select one of the following Fine Arts Concentrations. (28 Credits)

AR 2612 - Painting I
AHT 3050 - History of Illustration
Selected in consultation with Faculty Advisor:
- Painting/Drawing Elective Credits: 4
- Art course outside the discipline Credits: 4

AR 2313 - Printmaking I

or
AR 2612 - Painting I
AHT 3050 - History of Illustration
Selected in consultation with Faculty Advisor:
- Printmaking Elective Credits: 4
- Art course outside the discipline Credits: 4

AR 2313 - Printmaking I
If not used elsewhere in the concentration.
AR 2330 - Printmaking II Relief
AR 2040 - Printmaking II: Silkscreen

AR 2530 - Sculpture I

Or
AR 2612 - Painting I
AHT 3050 - History of Illustration
Selected in consultation with Faculty Advisor:
- Sculpture/Ceramics Elective Credits: 4
- Art Course outside the discipline Credits: 4

Select 28 credits in Fine Arts with advisor approval.

Liberal Arts & Sciences Core Curriculum, Bachelor's Degree

Electives

Select additional electives to reach 120 credits for a Bachelor's degree.

Fine Arts, BFA

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Overview

Student Work and Studios

Recognition and Rankings

NEC Ranked Top College in New Hampshire

NEC Ranked Leading College in New Hampshire

NEC Ranked Top College in New Hampshire

Faculty

Christopher Archer

Glen Scheffer

James Chase

Karen Hillson

Patrick McCay

Degree Requirements

Art: Fine Arts, BFA

Art Core

AR 1110 - Introduction to 2D Design

AR 1240 (CO 1240) (WS 1240) - Learning to Look: Contemporary Art and Media

AR 1610 - Drawing I

AR 2120 - Introduction to 3D Design

AR 2430 - Imaging with Digital Tools

AHT 2260 - Cross Cultural Connections in Visual Art

AR 4110 - Senior Thesis I

AR 4120 - Senior Thesis II

AR 4440 - Interdisciplinary Seminar

AR 4510 - Professional Practices in Art

AR 4910 - Internship/Apprenticeship in Art/Art History

AR 4985 - Senior Exhibition

Fine Arts Concentration:

Painting and Drawing Concentration

AR 2612 - Painting I

AHT 3050 - History of Illustration

Select One of the Following:

AR 3612 - Painting II

AR 2313 - Printmaking I

Select One of the Following:

AR 3440 - Experimental Fine Arts

AR 3530 - Sculpture II

4 Credits from the Following:

AR 2060 - Painting III: The Figure

AR 2530 - Sculpture I

AR 2620 - Figure Drawing I

AR 2630 - Figure Drawing II

AR 3030 - Waterbased Media

Printmaking Concentration

AR 2313 - Printmaking I

AR 2612 - Painting I

AHT 3050 - History of Illustration

Select One of the Following:

AR 2313 - Printmaking I

AR 2330 - Printmaking II Relief

AR 2040 - Printmaking II: Silkscreen

Select One of the Following:

AR 2350 - Printmaking II: Intaglio

AR 2080 - Printmaking II: Lithography

AR 3440 - Experimental Fine Arts

4 Credits from the Following:

AR 2390 - Introduction to Book Arts

AR 2530 - Sculpture I

AR 3360 - Printmaking II: Letterpress

DES 2010 - Print & Press

Sculpture/Ceramics Concentration

AR 2530 - Sculpture I

AR 2612 - Painting I

AHT 3050 - History of Illustration

Select One of the Following:

AR 1730 - Introduction to Wheelworking

AR 1740 - Introduction to Handbuilding

AR 2313 - Printmaking I

AR 3612 - Painting II

Select One of the Following:

AR 2740 - Intermediate Wheelbuilding

AR 3740 - Intermediate Handbuilding

AR 3511 - Sculpture / 3D Design II

AR 3440 - Experimental Fine Arts

4 Credits from the Following:

AR 2720 - Clay and Glaze Materials